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Boehlert: A Crack in the Noise Machine: How Murdoch Derailed Trump
2020-11-25
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https://pressrun.media/p/how-murdoch-derailed-trump
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https://www.icloud.com/keynote/0yDiAW0blL0iFnRMqyYSAuWIQ
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https://github.com/braddelong/public-fi les/blob/master/boehlert-how-murdoch-derailed-trum-2002-11-25.pptx
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The thoughtful and insightful Eric Boehlert misses the major moment
at which Rupert Murdoch put his press empire at the service of
America and Joe Biden in ending the insane clown show that his
been the presidential reign of Donald Trump. On the evening of
election day, at 23:20 EST,
Arnon Mishkin
on the
Fox News decision
desk
called Arizona
and its 11 electoral votes
for Joe Biden. Without
Arizona, Trump would need not just Georgia (which Biden won by
0.2
%
) and
Wisconsin (which Biden won by 0.7
%
)
but also at least
one of Pennsylvania (which Biden won by 1.2
%
) or Michigan (which
Biden won by 2.8
%
). Calling Arizona for Biden put out of reach an
election close enough that it could be decided for Trump by
complaisant judges and a little more voter suppression.
Yet Biden won Arizona, in the end, by only 0.3
%
. Fox News did not
call Michigan and Wisconsin for Biden until Wednesday afternoon,
and did not call Pennsylvania until Saturday, and did not call Georgia
until the 21
st
. Calling Arizona for Biden kept Fox News reporters and
anchors—and those who relied on Fox’s numbers—from stating that
Trump was on the way to victory Tuesday night and Wednesday
morning.
Arnon Mishkin’s thinking remains obscure. Facing pushback at Fox
News Wednesday about how Trump might still have the votes
outstanding to catch Biden, Mishkin snarked: “
If a frog had
wings
…
”
Mishkin said that he had made the call with only 20
%
of
the vote outstanding. But if that outstanding vote had broken more
than 1-in-60 for Trump than it in fact did, Trump would have won
Arizona. “Too close to call as of Tuesday night” seems to have been
the reality. Mishkin’s call was based on a misjudgment of how the
vote would come in. The question we will probably never now for
certain is how he came to make that misjudgment:
**Eric Boehlert**: _A Crack in the Noise Machine: How Murdoch Derailed Trump_
<
https://pressrun.media/p/how-murdoch-derailed-trump
>: ‘A longtime Beltway
columnist recently lowered the boom on Republicans. "The sheer nuttiness
surrounding the current mess is becoming deeply destructive," she wrote. "There is
no realistic route to victory for the president, only to confusion and chaos and
undermining
”…
>…
If the wounded president is looking for media voices of comfort since Election
Day, the last place he should look is Rupert Murdoch's editorial page at the _Wall
Street Journal_. A longtime bastion of right-wing rhetoric and propaganda, the
opinion section that waged a hysterical war on Bill Clinton for eight years and that
remained a mostly steadfast ally of Trump, has had a clear message for him in recent
weeks: Here's your hat, what's your hurry. That was the directive columnist Peggy
Noonan sent last week in the passages quoted above, penning a sneering take-down....
>
Noonan has hardly been alone as Journal columnists, as well as the unsigned
editorials that run on the page, have all lined up to mock and belittle Trump's failed
effort to steal an election.... Using all three of his American properties, Fox News, the
New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch clearly sent a top-down
message that he did not support Trump.... GOP propaganda works best, and has
proven to be so effective over the years years, when there's a united media front
pushing the same lies and distortions. It creates a powerful feedback loop....
>
It’s clear that it was Murdoch who sent out the dictate and who for weeks has
enforced the company line. None of this stuff happens by chance.... For the last three
weeks he's been using them to send a message to Trump, 'Move on,’ especially the
hard-right pages of the Journal: "If Mr. Trump had solid evidence of massive
wrongdoing, it should be taken to court by a serious practicing attorney. Mr.
Giuliani’s role as lead lawyer suggests this is political theater." "His efforts so far to
prove massive fraud have been as successful as O.J. Simpson’s efforts to fi nd the real
killer." "There's no good evidence of voting problems that would come close to Mr.
Biden’s lead of 73,000 votes in Pennsylvania or 145,000 in Michigan."
>
At the Post, the paper accused Trump of making an “unfounded claim that political
foes were trying to steal the election," while mocking his son, Donald Trump Jr., as
the “panic-stricken” author of a “clueless tweet" about election fraud.... "It’s a
pervasive, unpatriotic lie," Jonah Goldberg said. "They are alleging an insane, bat
guano crazy conspiracy theory."... I don't know why he chose this moment to oppose
Trump.... It’s important to note the role the media play in our politics and how small,
rare rifts within the right-wing echo chamber can have long-term consequences.